


That's What You Become

by OverlyCheerfulRat



Category: Monster High
Genre: Conjoined Twins, Dehumanization, Gen
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-07-20
Updated: 2018-07-23
Packaged: 2019-06-13 14:21:53
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 4
Words: 3,690
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15366558
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/OverlyCheerfulRat/pseuds/OverlyCheerfulRat
Summary: Robecca has spent her entire life helping her father, but after he buys a pair of conjoined twins she begins to question his actions for the first time.





	1. Objects

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Dott](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Dott/gifts).



Robecca Steam was built to be an assistant. Her “father”, Hexiciah Steam, wanted someone who was agreeable, but would point out things he might have missed; someone who could help him without ever wanting to surpass him; someone who would be perfectly content to remain in his shadow; someone who never asked for more than what they had. When he failed to find someone like that, he created them on his own. 

His daughter was beautiful and intelligent, shy and submissive. She was polite and demure, humble and happy working behind the scenes. Robecca was so much more useful than a human assistant, as she never complained or asked for more. She didn’t mind sleeping on a cot in the lab, where Hexiciah could wake her in the middle of the night if she was needed. For her first Christmas, she made herself a mechanical penguin out of leftover copper scraps, showing great resourcefulness. 

Over the years, Hexiciah trusted Robecca with more and more, and eventually began to think of her as a friend and confidante, not just a tool. He took her with him everywhere, even to places where young ladies weren’t expected to go. Often, they would investigate claims of human experimentation, and other members of the scientific community murmured that it was completely inappropriate for a lady to see such things. Hexiciah argued that Robecca was not truly a lady, as she had been built, not born.

The years rolled on. In the twenty-first century, Hexiciah finally allowed Robecca to have a laboratory of her own. It was smaller than his, with cheaper equipment, but it was still fully functional. She didn’t have much opportunity to use it until they came across a facility that performed “experiments” on monsters. It was going to foreclose, as the government had recently decided that monsters could not be used as test subjects against their will- and yet, they could still be bought and sold as property. 

Hexiciah was close friends with the head scientist of that particular lab, so he and Robecca got a free tour a few weeks before it closed. The test subjects were kept in tiny, cramped cells and all seemed to be bound in straitjackets. Robecca took to reading the labels on each cell door. They were brief and to the point, each one stating the inhabitant’s species, sex, and age. Most of the monsters didn’t even notice the small group. One girl (spider creature, female, 16) was asleep in a hammock she had apparently woven herself. (The head scientist explained that she had earned the privilege to be let out of the straitjacket on weekends.) Some of the monsters were more curious, and one (plant monster, female, 15) walked right up to the window and looked out at them.

Down another hall were the subjects who needed special accommodations. There weren’t many of them-it was probably too expensive-but the ones they did have were fascinating to both Hexiciah and Robecca. Most interesting was a massive girl made of slime (unknown, female, 16) who was fifteen feet tall according to the head scientist. He complained that they had to make her straitjacket extra large and very tight so she couldn’t slip out of it. Most of the other monsters on that hall were sea dwellers who needed to be submerged in tanks, and Robecca spent quite a while watching a two-headed girl (Hydra, female, 16) swim in circles repeatedly and listlessly. “Beautiful, aren’t they?” Robecca jumped. The head scientist was standing behind her and watching the Hydra. “They aren’t for sale, unfortunately. But if you’re interested in conjoined twins, why don’t I show you our other pair? Your father may want to run some tests on them.” Robecca and Hexiciah followed him out of the special accommodations hall and down another one labeled “hybrids”.

The subjects here were intriguing to Robecca. A boy with a horn growing out of his head (zombie/unicorn, male, 17) watched them with wide eyes, while an angry looking horse girl (harpy/centaur, female, 17) tried to lunge forward at them. Her upper half was bound in a straitjacket like everyone else, while her hooves were chained to the ground and a muzzle was strapped over her mouth. Everything about her screamed “I am an animal that needs to be controlled”. Robecca flinched, taking a step back. She had noticed some other subjects with muzzles- all four of the werewolves, some sort of alligator girl (swamp monster, female, 115), two vampires, a troll, and several zombies, but none of them looked like they really needed it. This girl, though, she looked almost feral.

Robecca kept moving, glancing at a mermaid who floated dreamily through the air (ghost/mermaid, female, 17) and a pink-skinned girl who had chewed her lip so much it was bleeding freely (moth/skeleton, female, 16) until they finally stopped in front of a door at the end of the hall. Robecca peered through the window to look at the two boys inside. At first, she thought they were just sitting close to each other, then realized that their bodies were fused together. They seemed to join at the bottom of their rib cages, and from there, everything else was merged. Interestingly, they were clearly fraternal twins. Robecca glanced at the label on the door. Human/fire elemental, male, 16. Looking back in, she started taking in the obvious differences between the two.

They looked nothing alike. The human twin had pale skin, blue eyes, and dark hair, while the fire elemental had blue skin, red eyes, and red hair. Other than that, and the different hair styles, they could have been photo negative copies of each other. The fire elemental had a muzzle, which he seemed incredibly annoyed by; he kept trying to get it off. The human nudged his brother and nodded towards the door. Robecca stepped back when they both looked at her. She noticed that her father was negotiating a price with the head scientist, and she turned back to the door. To her surprise, the conjoined twins had walked up to the window and were watching her closely. 

Not long after, Hexiciah had arranged to purchase them, and the scientist was happily explaining their history to him. “Well, we bought them from their parents… they were very eager to get rid of them, yes, it was extremely lucky for us. Their names? Ah, the human is Jackson, the other one is Holt. They’re very close… I mean, no pun intended, they care about each other very much. We considered separating them, but since they share many vital organs, we decided against it. Jackson is quite compliant, he won’t cause any trouble. Holt… isn’t. Be careful, he’ll fight you on every little thing. He gets very upset when Jackson is hurt. Actually, he’s one of the reasons we had to instill our straitjacket policy. There was an unfortunate incident… one of our scientists did something to Jackson, and we’re not really sure what, as Holt strangled him immediately afterwards. He’s much stronger than we thought. Don’t turn your back on him, there’s a very good chance he’ll kill you.”

This news didn’t exactly thrill Robecca, but Hexiciah wasn’t at all bothered. The scientist continued eagerly. “I think Holt might be one of the more dangerous subjects here. The werewolves have all attacked some scientists, and one in particular, Clawdeen, left major scars. She nearly killed one of our best men. Then, of course, there’s Gooliope- our giant girl. Her sheer size makes her a threat. She’s come close to crushing people. Avea has the highest body count… she’s the harpy-centaur, and she’s killed four of our researchers. Trampled them. We keep her chained up now. And then there’s Abbey, a yeti, she’s incredibly strong, broke someone’s neck in one go. Oh, and Heath-fire elemental-he’s caused some pretty nasty third degree burns. But overall, we’ve only had six deaths, courtesy of Holt, Avea, and Abbey. So those three are pretty much under constant surveillance.”

Robecca didn’t fall asleep easily that night. Getting Holt and Jackson out of the test lab and into her father’s had been much simpler than expected- Hexiciah drugged them and carried them back, commenting that they were surprisingly light for two people in one body. He locked them in the cage for his live subjects (usually animals, but they’d had a few monsters before) and told Robecca to make sure they didn’t panic upon waking up in a strange place. She woke up every hour to check on them, and was startled when they were already awake at four AM. Up until then, they had been unconscious, so it was rather disconcerting to find them standing near the bars and watching her every move.

Hexiciah had given Robecca direct orders to treat them as dogs or something similar, before adding that it was fine to be nice as long as they knew who was in charge. “Good morning,” Robecca said with a stiff smile. Her voice was totally monotone, as always. “Let us out,” Holt responded. His voice was higher than Robecca expected, but full of anger nonetheless. “I have been told to keep you in there until further notice.” Holt scowled at her. “Are you one of those robots with no emotion?” “No. I am essentially human.” “Oh, yeah. I can tell,” Holt said sarcastically. Robecca stopped smiling and sighed, annoyed. “Please go back to sleep. My father will begin testing tomorrow.” 

The word “testing” made Jackson whimper and grab Holt’s hand. “What, um, what kind of testing?” “I don’t know. He did not see fit to tell me, and I respect his decisions.” Holt rolled his eyes and snapped, “Look we don’t care about your ‘father’. We have to piss, so will you let us go to the bathroom?” Robecca shook her head. “I’m sorry. You are not to leave that cage.” “We’re not going to wet ourself,” Holt snapped. “I can bring you a bottle.” “Yeah, sure, fine. Just hurry up.” Robecca frowned at his rude manner. “You’ll have to wait. I don’t help obnoxious children.” “We’re the same age, you bitch-” “I am your senior by at least a century. Hold it.” Before she could walk away, Jackson quietly spoke up. “I’m sorry about my brother. He’s just scared because we’re in a new place. Please, we really need to go, I promise we won’t bother you again.” 

Robecca smiled. She liked this human much better than his loud twin. “Thank you for your manners,” she responded pointedly. “Give me a moment.” She tossed them an empty plastic bottle as soon as she found one, and as she fell asleep again, she heard a whispered argument between the twins. “I ain’t scared, Jackie, why’d you tell her that?” “Yes, you are.” “I don’t get scared. You get scared. Not me.” “Holt…” “I don’t!” “Whatever. Go back to sleep.”


	2. Burn the Village

The next morning, Robecca found Jackson and Holt lying on the floor of their cage silently. Holt was tossing something into the air and catching it, while Jackson sucked his thumb and stared into space with a vacant expression. They both ignored her as she came up to the side of the cage, but Holt glanced over when she cleared her throat. “What do you have?” She gestured to whatever Holt was tossing around as she asked this, and he held out his hand to show that it was a ring. “This was our grandfather’s wedding band. Our dad gave it to us as a gift… right before he sold us.” 

Neither of them spoke for a moment, but eventually Robecca pointed at Jackson, who was still looking at nothing and sucking his thumb like a child. “Is your brother okay?” “Yeah. He does this. I heard a scientist say it’s called dissociation or something… anyway, he can’t hear us right now, and he’s not gonna remember this when he wakes up.” Holt glanced at his brother, then back at Robecca. “Your daddy doesn’t seem all that fond of monsters,” he said casually. “He has nothing against your kind. But he needs test subjects, so of course-” “You do realize that robots are classified as monsters, right?”

Robecca paused, mouth hanging open. “Robots are neither human nor monster.” “They changed that back in the eighties. Legally speaking, you’re a monster. You have the same rights as we do- meaning none.” Holt laughed quietly, but Robecca frowned. “My father told me that I am above your kind.” “Our kind? Wow.” Before Robecca could ask what Holt was annoyed about now, Hexiciah marched in with his head held high. “Okay! I think we’ll start simple, yes? I want to examine the body first, I’ve never had any conjoined twins before.”

Hexiciah approached the cage and smiled kindly at the two boys. “Will you cooperate with me today? I’ve heard that the blue one is rather feisty. Robecca is more than happy to restrain both of you if it comes to that.” Holt slipped the ring onto his thumb and sat up, pulling his brother with him, not that Jackson seemed to notice. His hand fell away from his mouth and his head slumped against Holt’s shoulder, which made Hexiciah frown. “What’s wrong with the human?” “Disassociation,” Robecca murmured behind him. 

“Well, snap him out of it!” Holt rolled his eyes and gave Hexiciah a rather rude gesture, which made Robecca gasp. “How dare you insult my father, you insolent-!” “Robecca. Quiet. Bring them out here, and tell our fire elemental that he might want to wake his brother up before I take matters into my own hands.” Robecca walked closer to the cage and started to relay her father’s message, but Holt interrupted with “Yeah, I heard. Uh, give me a second.” He hesitated, trying to decide what to do, then gently shook Jackson’s shoulder and murmured things Robecca couldn’t hear.

After a minute, Jackson looked up, his eyes still slightly clouded. Hexiciah smiled and pushed Robecca aside to unlock the cage. Holt and Jackson stood up slowly, leaning against each other as they walked forward. Hexiciah put a hand on Holt’s shoulder and led them to an examination table, Robecca following close behind. She was surprised by how docile Holt was being, then realized that he was probably trying to keep Hexiciah from hurting Jackson. Both twins were silent until Hexiciah picked up a syringe. 

“What’s that for?” Jackson’s voice wavered as he asked this, and he grabbed onto Holt fearfully. “It’s something I designed recently. Just relax, will you? I’m going to inject your brother today, and you tomorrow, then both of you the next day. Give me your arm,” he ordered Holt, who frowned and soothingly rubbed Jackson’s back, as his brother was still clinging to him. “What’s that gonna do to us?” “Well, I don’t know yet, do I? Are you going to cooperate or should Robecca force you?” Holt held out his arm, which Robecca saw was littered with scars from past injections. 

“Ah, did they do this at the previous lab?” “Yeah,” Holt muttered as Hexiciah sterilized a patch of skin on his arm. He flinched as the needle went in, but Hexiciah just smiled and patted his fluffy red hair. “Let’s get you back in your cage, then!” Several minutes later, Holt was fidgeting with his ring while Jackson mumbled to himself, tugging on the sleeves of his hospital gown. Hexiciah was watching them closely, when suddenly Holt stiffened and fell back, making Jackson yelp in surprise. “What’s going on?” “Oh, he’s having a seizure. That was the point of the drug I gave him… I want to see if it will affect you as well.”

Initially, Jackson’s half of the twin’s shared body seemed unaffected, but when the clonic phase of the seizure began, he twitched and jerked as much as his brother. The difference was that he was still conscious and obviously frightened. Their seizure only lasted a few more minutes, and Jackson was crying by the end. Holt mumbled something along the lines of “what the fucking shit hell”, looking around blearily. When he noticed Jackson’s panicked crying, he held his brother to his chest and sat up, glaring at Hexiciah. “What the hell was that?”

“I induced a grand mal, or tonic-clonic, seizure to see how and if both of you would react. My goal is to see how your body works, compare and contrast each half. Eventually, I plan to cut you apart.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Chapter title is based on an African proverb: "The child who is not embraced by the village will burn it down to feel it's warmth."


	3. I Wonder if They Even Bleed

At first, Robecca wasn’t at all interested in her father’s experiments, but two weeks after they had begun, she woke in the middle of the night to find the twins watching her through the bars of their cage. “What are you doing awake?” “Newly acquired insomnia, side effect of some drug your daddy gave us,” Holt responded curtly. Approaching the cage, Robecca saw that all four of their arms were bruised and pockmarked from the injections her father kept giving them. Jackson was sucking his thumb but seemed at least vaguely aware of his surroundings, as he looked up at Robecca curiously. 

The steam powered robot sat cross legged next to the cage and asked, “Do you prefer my father’s laboratory to your previous… home?” She directed the question to Holt, but Jackson was the one who answered. “It’s a little better, just because we don’t have to be tied up. But other than that, it’s the same. We’re still just test subjects.” He put his thumb back in his mouth and looked down after speaking, and Holt squeezed his shoulder comfortingly. “Jackie’s being nice. We hated it there and we hate it here. Your daddy,” he spat venomously, “doesn’t think we even have thoughts or feelings. And you, you holier than thou robot cunt, you think you’re better than us because… what? Why are you special?”

Robecca put a hand over her mouth, shocked by Holt’s outburst. “I don’t think I’m special,” she murmured after a pregnant silence. “You think you’re better than us.” “Well… well, of course I am. You are monsters.” Holt rolled his eyes. “Actually, I’m the only monster between the two of us. Jackson’s human, in case you forgot. But that’s not the point. Even if I’m a monster, and we’re conjoined twins, why are you better?” “Because…” Robecca paused. Hexiciah had always said that monsters were just animals, but he never actually explained why. 

“My father told me so,” she stated firmly. “And he is a genius.” Holt scowled. “You daddy doesn’t know everything, shithead.” “Yes, he does!” Robecca cried indignantly. “He made me all by himself! I was the first sentient robot, you know! My father created life with his own hands. Your father didn’t even want you,” she snarled. Jackson started crying at that, and Holt gave Robecca a death glare as he tried to calm his brother down. 

Eventually, Jackson quieted down but kept clinging to Holt, who turned to face Robecca. “Did they tell you what I did to the last person who made my brother cry?” His voice was softer than usual, and Robecca quickly stood up. She didn’t answer until she was a safe distance from the cage. “Yes, the head scientist informed us. You strangled him, and that was part of the reason all subjects had to wear straitjackets.” The blue-skinned fire elemental snickered. “That’s what he said? Lying bastard. No, I didn’t strangle the guy.” Holt opened his mouth to show unusually sharp teeth. “I tore his fucking throat out.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Chapter title is a line from "Savages".


	4. Dreams We'll Never Know

The twins held onto each other as they walked, presumably for balance. Robecca had started watching them more carefully, and she noticed that Holt always had one arm around Jackson’s shoulders, while Jackson had an arm around Holt’s waist at all times. They spoke to each other softly, whispering so as not to be overheard. After the insomnia wore off, Robecca was able to observe their sleeping patterns, which she found fascinating. Jackson would use Holt’s chest as a pillow, while Holt wrapped his arms tightly around the other twin, who sometimes tried to squirm out of his grip.

Their shared body was completely enthralling. Hexiciah let Robecca examine them, and she found that even after they fused at the bottom of the rib cage, a line divided their skin colors clearly. She ran a finger down the line, marveling at their unique body, but quickly moved away when Holt snapped, “You wanna go any lower, honey?” Robecca did end up doing just that the next day, and noted aloud that their genitals were also two different colors. “Get your hands off our dick,” Holt responded angrily.

It was essential to note the physical differences between the two, given that Jackson was human and Holt a monster. As he had previously shown Robecca, Holt had extremely sharp teeth, which he seemed to instinctively display whenever he thought Jackson was in danger. His skin was always warm, presumably due to his fire elemental heritage. Jackson had no special physical traits, so Robecca ignored him during the physical.

Their psych eval was much more interesting. Robecca wasn’t allowed to perform any tests, so she merely wrote down what she had already observed- that the twins seemed very codependent, Jackson was timid and childish, Holt was fiercely protective of his brother and had frequent angry outbursts. Neither of them would answer when she asked about their past, so she cobbled together what she already knew; they had been sold to a medical facility at age 12, and at some point Holt bit a scientist’s throat out. 

That was what Robecca was most curious about. What had prompted that? Holt was perpetually annoyed and had a quick temper, but he didn’t seem violent. The first time she asked, they ignored her. The second time, Jackson mumbled that they didn’t want to talk about it. Third time, Holt snarled at her and tried to grab her arm through the cage. Fourth time, she was ignored again. On the fifth try, Holt actually succeeded in grabbing onto her, but Jackson pulled him away before he could do anything.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Chapter title is from the song "Tears of Blood" by Karliene.

**Author's Note:**

> The title is a quote from Narnia. "You get treated like a dumb animal long enough, that's what you become."


End file.
